1991
John A. Pursley
1941 B.S. Chemical Engineering

John Pursley is a dynamic entrepreneur from a Pennsylvania family that has produce such individuals since before the civil war. He and his brother and brother-in-law founded four successful speciality chemical manufaturing business, subsequently acquired and operated by three major international corporations: Croda International, Henkle Corporation and Avery International. All operations remain based in Pennsylvania and continue to contribute significantly to local economicss and empolyment rates. Pursley also is known for the development of an elegant, patented, high pressure, high temperature fluorination process for the continuous synthesis of chlorine pentaflouride.

Pursley began his engineering career in semi-scale petrochemical process development at the Celanese Corporation of America. Later, he was employed by the Gulf Research and Development Co. and by the Rocketdyne Dividsion of North American Rockwell. He earned a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1950. Active in engineering education throughout his career, Pursley was Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Brazil and consultant to Petroleo Brasiliero from 1954 to 1956. He later taught chemistry at Lock Haven University.

A strong supporter of the College of Engineering, Pursley helped develop the Chemical Engineering Unit Operations Laboratory as well as engineering approaches to economic analysis. He also has made major gifts designated to support the Chemical Engineering Laboratories.

Current as of 1991

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